The most amazing thing about Apple’s LTE-equipped iPhone 5? Its battery life

The iPhone 5 was introduced earlier today and with it came the news that it would support the super-fast 4G LTE network standard. This means that you’ll get blazing fast internet on the new device right out of the box.

But that’s not the amazing thing. That’s reserved for the battery life numbers that Apple delivered with LTE. The blazing fast speeds of LTE have long impressed users of smartphones like those from Motorola and Samsung, but one big issue has held back its growth: crap battery life.

That’s pretty good. Apple managed to upgrade the iPhone 5 to LTE and keep the battery life identical to the 3G iPhone 4S.

Apple doesn’t give the specs of its new battery beyond hours promised and blacks out the specs in its promo images, but leaks pegged it as a a 3.8V 5.4WHr battery with a 1440 mAh capacity. That’s a 2.8% increase in capacity over the iPhone 4S and it’s likely helped along by what is likely a new lower-power 28nm Qualcomm MDM9615 LTE chip.

But the real kicker? Apple managed to do all of that and still make the iPhone 5 7.6 mm thick, which is 18% thinner than the iPhone 4S and 20% lighter at 112 grams

To give you an idea how good this is, the brand new Droid RAZR M, which is a bit thicker than the iPhone 5, still only manages just under 7 hours on LTE. That’s decent, but not nearly as impressive as the thinner iPhone 5 (if it delivers on Apple’s promises).

Note that Motorola’s recently announced RAZR MAXX HD has far better battery life on LTE, but it’s also way thicker and heavier.

This was likely helped along by Apple’s new in-cell touchscreen, which laminates the touch sensor, the glass and the LCD all together for a thinner profile. that left more room for the battery and other components, while still making it nice and thin.